Disclaimer: Still not mine. Well the plot is, but there's not enough of it yet to steal.

Chapter Two

There was a bitter silence between the two of them. Kagome had long since stopped her babbling of apologies. Inu Yasha, as expected, had remained icy and silent. All the girl could really do was wait it out and hope that this would all blow over.

A few more minutes had passed and she was starting to get tired of walking so fast. She was going in a hardly contained jog/walk and still couldn't quite catch up with the half demon to walk side-by-side. Kagome didn't dare slow down; she wasn't sure if his pace would decrease with her own, but she had a suspicion that it wouldn't.

Kagome tried hard to think of anything but the silence and the exhausting pace. Her thoughts though, would just return to how this particular fight started. Really, Inu Yasha has every right to be mad, the miko thought. She knew she'd be mad too if he had smacked her.

Sure, she had whapped him across the face a few other times, but those had been accidents...more or less. Kagome sighed and decided it was time to explain herself to him, "Hey...Inu Yasha..."

He didn't answer, but the girl had seen his ears flicker towards her briefly, which meant he was listening.

"Um about today...I guess I owe you an explanation." Good, another ear flick. Kagome took a deep breath and continued on, "Well, I guess it started last night. I had this awful dream, well it wasn't that bad at first. I was sitting with our kids, waiting for you to come back," If she had been along side him, the miko would have seen him blush. She was caught up in the moment though, and the words were spilling out, "I don't remember where you went, but suddenly you came running at us. You grabbed one of the kids and just started to shake and beat him. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.

"And then today when I saw you grab that kid...that's all I could think of. So that's why I hit you. I didn't know that he'd stolen our stuff and you were just getting it back." There, she had gotten it over with. Kagome sighed again, this time with relief.

Inu Yasha stopped and glanced at her from over his shoulder. The half demon was about to say something to her when he was hit with a sudden realization. "Hey Kagome, do you hear that?"

"Hear what? Everything's quite."

"Exactly." The forest was dead silent. There was no sound of birds calling out or the scolding of small woodland creatures towards one another. It was eerie and made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Just keep close, all right?" he told her.

Kagome was walking much closer to him now, and it was taking a great conscience effort on her part not to grab onto one of his arms. Her nerves were on edge and even the sound of their own footsteps was making her jump.

There! Out of the corner of her eye she had seen something...a little ball of light. The miko spun around, but didn't see anything. She shook her head at the half demon's inquiring look. Nothing.

They were close to the village now. Again, she saw something out of the corner of her eye, but once she checked it was gone. This time though, it had been hovering close to Inu Yasha's face.

Suddenly, Inu Yasha felt a spark on his left cheek. It didn't hurt, but in the next instant it felt as if his whole body had been filled with them. As soon as it had come, it was gone. The half demon wasn't sure if he had imagined it or not.

Then, out of nowhere it seemed, a flock of birds screamed into the air. In their wake came several crashing noises. A bear stumbled onto the road behind them. Automatically, Inu Yasha moved himself in front of Kagome.

The young woman suppressed her urge to scream. By the way the animal's unfocused eyes leered at them, it's unsteady balance, and slight froth around his mouth she could tell it was rabid. He howled in confusion and pain as it stepped towards them and the half demon instantly slashed at its shoulder. The bear swiped at him and got a lucky slash at his arm. He stepped in and smoothly cut off the animal's head.

Kagome blinked back tears. She felt bad for the fallen creature; it hadn't been his fault that his mind had been eaten away by sickness. She shook her head and looked at Inu Yasha's cut. More of a glorified scratch then anything else, but she was concerned none the less. After all, the bear had had rabies.

The half demon saw her eyeing his arm and stepped back from her. "No, no, no, none of your nasty sprays. It's a scratch and it'll be gone in an hour."

"But that bear had rabies!"

"So?"

"Well have you ever had rabies? No! Now shut up!" Kagome was at her meanest when she was being caring. She pulled a tiny canister of antiseptic out of her skirt pocket. The half demon instantly took another step back, but before he could do it again, she had lashed out and grabbed his arm.

There was a tiny Pop! noise and suddenly Inu Yasha was gone. All that was left was a heap of his clothes.

A/N: Again, please read and review. Thanks are owed to Krystal for helping me with a title and summary! Go Krystal, you're the man!

I swear I'm a frustrated ballerina-cheerleader on the inside.